Reason behind rejection of Google Street View in India

People can only dream to get a panoramic view of Indian streets on Google Maps after the rejection by Union Home Ministry of launching the service in India proposed by Internet giant. Google planned to put images of Indian tourist’s spots, cities, rivers and hills but it was cut by defense forces and security agencies in India, who believed that allowing people to capture images for this purpose may harm India’s security.

The huge internet services planned to wrap whole Indian Territory with the Google Street Views. Google Street View surveys the world within a 360-degree, panoramic view along with 3D imagery street level. All the images captured are posted online by Google Street View. This application is used on large scale by United States, Canada and many other European Countries and was granted initially in some parts of India.

Following are some developments I have listed which are done in India till now:

Mumbai attack by terrorist in 2008 gave a hint to have photographic investigation of targets y David Coleman Headley a Pakistani-American. Defense forces have feared that Google Street View’s feature like panoramic view, 360-degree may compromise India’s security.

They believe that terrorists may take advantage of such features and can plan terror attacks with more accuracy. Google Maps show streets images as blue lines on Google maps. Photography is mostly done by car, trekker, tricycle, boat, walking, camel, snowmobile and apparatus under the water.

Pathankot terrorist attack at the airbase this year also raised questions on security because according to investigators terrorist planned the attack with the help of Google maps due to awareness of topography on airbase.

For experiment Google launched Street View in place like, Red Fort, Taj Mahal, Mysore Palace, Qutub Minar, Nalanda University, and many more along with the partnership with Archaeological Society of India.

Delhi High Court scanned nuclear power plants, Indian defense installations and many other “sensitive locations visibility on Google Maps.

Government also showed their concerns on few social networking sites that shows Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir to be a part of China and Pakistan.

Because of all these reasons government proposed Geospatial Information Regulation Bill in which wrong illustration of India’s map would fine violators with Rs 100 Crore and sentenced to jail for maximum 7 years.

Earlier in 2015 Google Street View had partnered with environment monitoring company Aclima, that allows cars to have sensors to help detecting air pollutants like ozone, nitrogen dioxide and other particulate matters. In the same year in October, Google also announced support of Cardboard which enables people using Google Street view to investigate views of street with 360-degree virtual reality.